The Kansas Jayhawks beat TCU on Wednesday night, assuring KU of their 13th straight Big 12 conference championship, tying the program with UCLA's streak of 13 straight in 1967-79. Yet, for the past week I've been hearing many talking heads and others pulling out their "yeah, but..." arguments.
So, in an attempt to be as objective as possible, let's see if this writer (who, in full disclosure, has witnessed approximately 90 of those conference games in Allen Fieldhouse during the streak) can take a crack at answering the skeptics.
"Yeah, but...the Big 12 is a weak league"
This argument is the easiest to debunk. During the 13 year streak, the Big 12 has had the #1 conference RPI on four occasions, has been #2 three times and #3 twice.
Coaches in the league during Kansas' run have included dudes named Bob Knight, Bob Huggins, Tubby Smith, Lon Kruger, Rick Barnes, Shaka Smart, Bruce Weber and Kelvin Sampson, all who took or have taken teams to the NCAA Final Four during their careers.
The Big 12 has consistently been a tough basketball league.
"Yeah, but...KU played in the Big 12's North Division, which was weak"
Be careful, my friend.
Back in the day when the Big 12 had two divisions, the South dominated (tongue planted firmly in cheek) the North at a 271-269 clip. In other words, there was no major difference between the winning percentages of the two divisions.
Kansas was 128-22 (85.33%) against their colleagues in the North, and 73-17 (81.11%) against teams in the South in the years when there were two divisions. In contrast, Texas was 55-35 (61.11%), Oklahoma State was 53-37 (58.89%) and Oklahoma was 48-42 (53.33%) against the North.
The bottom line is that Kansas did not gain a major advantage by playing schools from the North twice and schools from the South once during a season.
"Yeah, but...Kansas has tied for a share of the title on four occasions"
Guilty as charged. The four shared titles came in 2005 (Oklahoma), 2006 (Texas), 2008 (Texas) and 2013 (Kansas State.)
In '05, Kansas lost in Norman to Oklahoma and did not have a rematch in the Big 12 Tournament, marking the only time in this streak where KU did not beat the team that it tied for the crown.
Texas tied Kansas in '06 and '08, beating the Jayhawks both of those years in Austin. KU rebounded in 2006 to beat Texas in the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament in Dallas. In 2008, the same happened, only this time in Kansas City at the tournament.
"Yeah, but...Kansas has under-achieved in the NCAA Tournament during these 13 years"
Okay then, go ahead and change the topic and the argument. But, if you want to go there, here's the data:
- Kansas has a 27-11 record in the past 13 NCAA Tournaments, or a 71% winning percentage.
- The Jayhawks have a national championship and a national championship game appearance during that span.
- Only Duke, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Gonzaga have made every NCAA Tournament, like Kansas, during the past 13 seasons. The records: Duke = 26-10/72%; Michigan State = 27-12/69%; Wisconsin = 23-12/66%; Gonzaga = 15-12/56%.
For every Bucknell, Bradley and Northern Iowa is someone else's Lehigh, Mercer and Middle Tennessee. In other words, Duke and Michigan State have had early round flameouts too.
"Yeah, but...it's John Wooden!"
In reality, it's not. UCLA's streak of 13 straight league titles in 1967-79 featured three coaches - Wooden, Gene Bartow and Gary Cunningham.
The college game in 1967-79 was different than today and thus it's hard to compare the two streaks. UCLA played in the then Pac 8 conference (formerly the Athletic Association of Western Universities until 1968) along with USC, Cal, Washington, Stanford, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State. Arizona and Arizona State would join in 1978 to make it the Pac 10.
Scholarship numbers were different in the 1960's and '70s compared to today and, of course, the NCAA Tournament was different as well - the expansion to 68 teams would not occur until 2011. (In contrast, the tournament during the 1967-79 stretch was comprised of 22-25 teams and expanded to 32 in 1975.)
One thing remains that will not be duplicated - eight national titles for UCLA during the 13-year span from 1967-79.
"Yeah, but..."
No more "buts." The streak of 13 straight shared or outright conference championships is a feat that is unprecedented in modern day American sports. And, what's perhaps even more amazing is a Kansas streak that rarely gets mentioned - KU now has been to the NCAA Tournament for 28 straight years (counting this season). No other school in NCAA Tournament history has accomplished that level of consistency, much less at the marquee level of Kansas - 11 times a 1 seed, seven times a 2 seed and three times a 3 seed, during this 28 year span. (The lowest seed was an 8 in 2000.)
In a time when everyone focuses on March Madness, my hope is that the magnitude of this accomplishment - winning a tough league over the course of an 18-game schedule - can be appreciated not only by those in the Big 12 but nationally as well.
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